American socialite Paris Hilton is one of the leading investors in an NFT ticketing project called “Afterparty.” Recent reports suggest Afterparty has raised about $7 million from investment firms, VCs, and celebrities.
Besides Paris Hilton, a few other prominent names backing Afterparty’s NFT ticket market include:
- The Golden State Warriors’ Andre Iguodala
- Zillow’s co-founder Spencer Rascoff
- “Project Runway’s” producer Desiree Gruber
Afterparty gained prominence last year when it minted its 1,500 “Utopians” NFTs. Each generative art Utopian NFT gave holders access to a plethora of party perks. Most notably, these NFTs serve as VIP passes to Afterparty’s Las Vegas music festival till 2026. Utopian holders also enjoy first access to new NFT drops and IRL meet-ups at events like NYC.NFT.
Many A-list celebrities like Heidi Klum and Sia already hold Utopian NFTs. The current price for a Utopian NFT on OpenSea is 5.65 ETH (~ $16,600).
Afterparty says it will follow the success of its Utopians NFTs with a new NFT collection called “Guardians.” According to Afterparty’s official website, Guardians NFTs will grant holders VIP access to all of Afterparty’s LA festivals. Those interested in grabbing a Guardian NFT could join Afterparty’s mailing list for updates.
However, Afterparty isn’t content to sell NFT tickets for its sponsored events. In recent interviews, Afterparty’s CEO David Fields says he wants his platform to become a competitor to sites like Ticketmaster.
To scale his NFT ticketing site, Fields decided to shift from Ethereum’s mainnet to the Polygon blockchain. As a layer two solution for Ethereum, Polygon offers cheaper gas fees for minting and trading NFTs. Polygon also has a strong reputation for being an eco-friendly blockchain.
Afterparty also wants to make it easier for people who don’t have crypto to buy NFT tickets. Fields told reporters he’s already working with the fiat-to-crypto service MoonPay to let customers buy Guardians NFTs with credit cards.
Fields also assured customers they could take their NFT tickets off of Afterparty’s platform if they’d prefer to keep them in a private wallet.
Paris Hilton Pushes for Web3 Development
In January of 2022, Paris Hilton revealed her love for NFTs when she talked about her Bored Ape #1294 on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. However, Hilton is far more than an NFT collector. Along with celebrities like Steve Aoki and Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton is one of the biggest investors in Web3 technologies.
For instance, Hilton and her husband Carter Reum recently invested in a blockchain project called Boba Network. Like Afterparty, Boba Network is most interested in making the Ethereum blockchain cheaper, quicker, and more scalable.
Plus, as Rarity Sniper recently reported, Paris Hilton may soon be making a big move into the metaverse. At the 2022 SXSW convention, Animoca Brands announced Hilton now owns prime virtual real estate in The Sandbox metaverse.
Whether it’s NFT tickets or virtual land, Paris Hilton is betting big on the future of Web3.